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March 26, 2015

Los Angeles quartet Talk in Tongues make lightly psychedelic guitar pop that will likely appeal to fans of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Dungen (who have remixed them), the new Toro Y Moi album, or even breezy '70s stuff like Seals & Croft. (There are occasionally flutes.) Their debut album, Alone with a Friend, will be out May 19 via Fairfax Recordings. You can stream a couple songs from it below.

Talk in Tongues just played SXSW and will soon be heading out on a proper North American tour, including a stop in NYC at Baby's All Right on April 12 with Kyp Malone's band Ice Balloons and Odonis Odonis (who are on tour together). Tickets are on sale now.

Toronto's gothy, abrasive/ethereal Odonis Odonis are working on their follow-up to last year's Hard Boiled Soft Boiled, but in the meantime made a new video for "Office Sluts" from that record and you can watch that below. If you want to hear new stuff, you're going to have to go see them live when Odonis Odonis head out on tour with Ice Balloons, the funky conglomerate that counts TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone as a member.

That tour hits NYC on April 12 at Baby's All Right with LA band Talk in Tongues also on the bill. Tickets are on sale now.

Cambridge, MA indie rockers Sweet John Bloom (ex-Daniel Striped Tiger, Four Eyes, Lost Twin) have a sound that recalls Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr or your late '80s / early '90s band of choice. But while they may wear their influences on their sleeves, they know how to craft a good hook better than a lot of bands who do the same thing. Their debut album, Weird Prayer, was recorded with home state production hero Justin Pizzoferrato (who's worked with Dinosaur Jr), and it's due out this spring via Tiny Engines. Get a taste from the video for "Blood Moon," which you can watch below. Artwork and tracklist below too.

The band have two shows coming up at the moment, one in Brooklyn on April 24 at The Gutter, and then another in Cambridge on April 26 at Middle East Upstairs.

You may know New York trio Crying as a band that mixes chiptune and pop punk, but as their series of tweets screenshotted above points out, they're also huge fans of... Rush. And that's pretty apparent from their new single "Patriot," which is a departure from their earlier material. The song opens with an intro that bears an uncanny resemblance to Rush's "The Spirit of Radio," and the chorus bring in synths that recall Rush's mid-'80s new wave period. Not to mention Crying have a technical drummer who's a great fit for this kind of proggy workout. But when singer Elaiza Santos comes in with dream pop vocals, it's clear that Crying aren't just copying their heroes. They take on prog more like Mew or The Most Serene Republic, mixing it with more modern trends in indie. Listen for yourself below.

Crying are about to kick off a tour with Eskimeaux, but first they play a free NYC show on Friday (3/27) at Brooklyn Night Bazaar. That lineup's pretty great all around, with Crying's Run for Cover labelmates Teen Suicide headlining, plus Amanda X, LVL UP, Flagland and Washer.

Speaking of Eskimeaux, the Epoch member and Frankie Cosmos collaborator recently released the first single from her upcoming album, OK, which comes out May 12 via Double Double Whammy. It's called "Broken Necks," and it's an intricately-layered intimate pop song that would've fit nicely on former Carissa's Wierd singer Jenn Ghetto's S album last year. Listen below.

San Francisco's Male Gaze is the new band from Matt Jones of Blasted Canyons. He's got a strong melodramatic delivery, which gives them a gothy slant, but their music definitely leans on the "punk" in post-punk. Male Gaze just released a seven-song mini-LP, Gale Maze, via John Dwyer's Castle Face label (that Matt also helps run) and it's a real bruiser, hooky and danceable but hard-hitting and sneery. There's not a bum track on Gale Maze and it's not miles, sonically, from the stuff coming out of Denmark lately. Stream two tracks and check out the video for "Mr. Wrong" (which plays off the band's name), below.

Male Gaze are currently on a West Coast tour and play Seattle tonight. Let's hope they head east soon. All dates are listed below.

Flag of Democracy is a hardcore punk band from the Philadelphia 'burbs. F.O.D. was formed in 1982 and are still going strong. Their first show was with Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, SS Decontrol, and Crib Death at a Better Youth Organization show in Camden, NJ. [Last.fm]

Flag of Democracy are remastering and reissuing a handful of their albums for this year's Record Store Day (4/18) via SRA Records. One of those is their third full length, 1990's Down With People, which we're premiering a full stream of in this post. If you're unfamiliar with the record, it kept the intensity of F.O.D.'s hardcore roots intact, while also embracing a melodic side that hinted at the poppier punk bands the '90s would bring. Anyone who's been listening to the record for years may prefer the version they're used to, but there's no question the remaster has these songs sounding bigger and cleaner. Check it out, with details on their other reissues, below.

Syrian singer Omar Souleyman will release his new album, Bahdeni Nami, on July 28 via Modeselektor's Monkeytown Records. That's the cover art above and Modeselektor produced some of it, like the nine-minute "Enssa El Aatab" which you can stream below. Four Tet and Giles Peterson offer up production as well on the album.

Souleyman is in the US currently, playing the Treefort Festival in Boise, ID tonight, Slingshot fest in Athens, GA on Friday (3/27) and the Big Ears fest in Knoxville, TN on Saturday (3/28). He'll be back in May for a few more shows, including one at NYC's Le Poisson Rouge on May 22 with Tasseomancy. Tickets go on sale Friday (3/27) at 10 AM.

Villagers (aka folk singer Conor O'Brien) has a new home-recorded album on the way, which (from what we've heard of it) is sounding like his barest material yet. He came to NYC this week to open Laura Marling's post-SXSW show at Warsaw on Monday (3/23) and then to play his own smaller show at Union Pool last night (3/25). Last night's show was about half new stuff, and half older ones. He was also accompanied by a harpist (who also played some keys and did some background vocals), and the two of them sounded lovely together.

Zachary Cale opened the show. More pictures (including one of Villagers' setlist) below...

Slumberland Records founder and Black Tambourine / Manatee member Mike Schulman has a new band called Hard Left, and the indie pop sounds you may associate him with are nowhere to be found here. Also featuring Boyracer's Stewart Anderson and Lunchbox's Tim Brown and Donna McKean, Hard Left make throwback punk recalling the late '70s UK era. If you're into stuff like Sham 69, Cockney Rejects or The Sex Pistols, this band is for you.

The band's debut LP, We Are Hard Left, comes out May 12 as the third release on the band's own label Future Perfect Records. We've got the premiere of its newest single, "Red Flag," which you can listen to below.

The California-based band also have a few upcoming shows in their home state. Those dates are listed below too...

Ceremony were just down in Austin for SXSW last week, playing a few shows including the BrooklynVegan Saturday party at Red 7. The shapeshifting band previewed a few songs from their upcoming album, and while people often use "sounds like Joy Division" to just mean "post-punk," these new Ceremony songs really sounded like Joy Division. Not a bad thing though, because Ceremony do it well.

Now the album's officially been announced, and studio recordings for two of the tracks, "The Separation" and "The Understanding," are out. Check them out for yourself in the band's new video (dir. Ross Thomas), below. The album's called The L-Shaped Man, and will be out May 19 via Matador.

The band also announced a few tour dates, including a NYC show happening July 1 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for that show will be on sale soon via Ticketmaster. They're also performing songs from the new album this Friday (3/27) at Kinfolk 94 (94 Wythe Ave in Brooklyn) at 6:45 PM. RSVP here, but admission is still first come, first served.

All dates are listed, with more pictures of their BV-SXSW set, the album artwork and new video, below...